Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I've decided to start posting a word of the day as a way to stretch my brain and get it thinking. I'll be getting these from Merriam-Webster's dictionary.

Glom\glahm\v. 1:take, steal 2: seize, catch

Example: "She signed an affidavit of confession attesting she glommed more than $284,000, the company contends."

Did you know? It's a classic case of glomming: Americans seized on "glaum" (a term from Scots dialect that basically means "grab") and appropriated it as our own, changing it to "glom" in the process. "Glom" first meant "steal" (as in the purse-snatching, robber kind of stealing), but over time that meaning got stretched. Today, "glom" often figuratively extends that original "steal" sense. A busy professional might glom a weekend getaway, for example. "Glom" also appears frequently in the phrase "glom on to," which can mean "to appropriate for one's own use" ("glom on to another's idea"); "to grab hold of" ("glom on to the last cookie"); or "to latch on to" ("glom on to an opinion" or "glom on to an influential friend").

My use: My dear friend Jenny has totally glommed my idea for this blog. Go here to see her blog.